Archive for ‘Macross Frontier’

I actually preferred the Minmay of the TV series because I found her narrative to be more compelling. She acts without any consideration for others and lets herself be totally manipulated which yeah is pretty deplorable, but at the end of the TV series the melancholy and depression that hits Minmay when she starts to realize what she has done and where her life is headed is absolutely delicious. It just perfectly captures that most miserable feeling of losing everything you care about and not even being able to be angry because you know that it is your own fault.

I think they made Movie Sheryl flawed in her tool against the Vajra and spy dilemma, dealing with real consequences and some bittersweet karma outcome. This is how they should have gone with TV series Ranka. None of that magic-godly whitewashing bullshit. Sheryl, Alto, SMS, all of they should have stuck with Ranka, but I would like her more aware of her actions too.

Movie Sheryl is an actual spy from Macross Galaxy, a place she seems to love enough to pay for its rescue with her credits in the film. She’s aware of her disease (whether if they infect her with it or she was already infected, it’s not explicitly said. Since it seems to ruin their plans, perhaps its the latter) and she signed up in her role as Fairy until they find Ranka. We don’t really know how much she knew about the Galaxy take over (probably nothing of this), but she seemed seeking Ranka out of the memory of her grandmother’s research and beliefs.

And she also feels a strong love and loyalty for Grace, similar to how Ranka feels towards Ozma (Aya Endo empathized this love she feels like a child to a mother).

However, she also knew that the Vajra would attack Frontier sooner or later (Brera apologized because they attacked sooner than they thought). Was she trying to stop this or to use the Vajra to draw Ranka out? We don’t know (like Universal Bunny, Sheryl’s very controversial in the movie). Probably the former. She also feels this crippling loneliness. Maybe because he alone isn’t implanted and, while she might care for Grace and Brera, they are controlled. It must have been terrible for her watch them all this time.

Even though she’s dying and the only hope to save her is harvesting the life of her rival in song and love (remove an obstacle), she feels nothing but relief when she’s arrested. She accepts all the charges, the false and the truthful ones. She wants to pay for them. I really like this. Then her high point is to show that, even if she had a turmoil earlier and she has only spent three or four months in Frontier, she betrays the only people who could save her to keep Ranka safe. Then she is willing to die for Ranka’s sake.

I really like her character progression and I would have like to watch more her thought processes. She is more like the Mad Scientist’s Beautiful Daughter type. We know she means well in her feelings and thoughts (Ranka and Alto felt them), but she’s caught in bad circumstances.

In regards of the triangle, it was less, IMO, who Alto loved. It was very obvious to me Alto was drawn romantically to Sheryl through the movies. The scenes with them are charged and contrasting. But he couldn’t trust her, he trusted Ranka, his best friend, but he didn’t love her. In the end, he was able to trust Sheryl and unable to change his feelings for Ranka.

I really liked this movie for basically effectively pulling off the What if scenario that I’ve always seen brought up by Ranka fans in the forums, especially after the head script writer outright said that it was Sheryl who won in the tv series.(he had more power than Kawamori in the tv series–the novels also refer to her as the woman that Alto loves), and he only took it out because he felt that there were too much problems with Alto’s character to let him choose. This movie was basically answered for us, what if the roles were reversed, what if it was Sheryl who was the traitor, and Ranka was responsible, independent, more mature, more considerate, didn’t make her life revolve around a person she just met and barely knew, knew Alto longer, and spent more time with him; would Alto love Ranka then, would Sheryl make the same mistakes that Ranka did? This movie answered those questions with a resounding no.

Sheryl didn’t make the same choices as Ranka, she didn’t keep vital information to herself,

This is why this movie worked it was a role reversal what if scenarios and altered the characters accordingly so that they could make it work.

I watched it two night ago, and was pleasantly surprised by the outright changes in the storyline. But more noticeable was, IMHO, the greater amount of development on Sheryl’s part, thus I have come to like her much as Sachiko Ogasawara or Asuka Langley Soryu.

Hmmm… about her credit card:

*A holographic stage dress custom-built by Miyake and LAI: 5000 credits * Lunch at the Frontier Terra: 300 credits * A special rescue mission by the SMS private military contractor, with a Macross Quarter, four Messiah squadrons, and optional special offensive weaponry: 120,000,000 credits * Seeing even half of your Galaxy fanbase alive as they come to see refuge on Frontier: priceless.

I wonder if one could possibly take it like this (at least I try to do, but there’s some places when it doesn’t work.):
“Real” Macross Canon (aka, the non-existent “real events” that Kawamori indirectly refers to, which we can discard because we never see them) >> TV Series Canon (including OVAs) >> Movie-Retelling Canon (DYRL, BH, TFS).

So, if you’re in “Real” Macross, you watched the TV Series, and within the TV series, you knew that the movies had been made re-telling history (kind of how we would watch a documentary about Jack the Ripper which also shows scenes from Jack the Ripper movies). In you’re in TV Series Macross, you’re just watching the movies. And if you’re in the movies, you aren’t watching anything.

Now, “Real” Macross is a middle-man that we can cut out because “Real” Macross does not add or change anything from what we watch, hence, we would be taking the place of “Real” Macross, just without their history with which to verify facts and compare to.

Which would make TV Series the Main Canon, i.e, the facts by which everything else will be compared, and the re-tellings would simply be as their events were recorded in the history books, with some added flair from the director (The director of TFS could, perhaps, be a Ranka-fan but unable to make her a heroine using her real actions and personality, and thus changed a few things to make it viable. It would also explain the over-the-top-perfection of Sheryl, who would probably be nearly a saint to Frontier. Minmay would probably get the polishing treatment no matter who made the movie because she was that important to humanity and aliens first getting along together. If we got an M7 retelling, it would be very divisive in terms of Basara, those who thought him irresponsible and the zombie-fans who would treat him like a god). Hence, we could see the movies as the public perception of the Macross people (would also explain why so many battles were moved from deep space to Frontier; people probably remembered getting their city smashed more than some distant battles in space, and gets a skewed perception as to how large a percentage of the battles were brought to their doorsteps).

It would also fit with the Ranka-love at the end of the last Frontier episode. The people of Frontier really, truly believes that their (TV) Ranka is like Movie-Ranka, which would fit the innocent messiah much more than Ranka’s immaturity and single-minded focus on Alto. To them, Ranka thought equally about Alto and her brother. To them, Ranka and Alto were childhood friends because they knew each other before Ranka was famous. To the Alto-fanboys, Alto used his Kabuki to solve the mystery of Sheryl (also, the movie would address the doubts people had about Sheryl’s allegiances to Galaxy and Frontier). Even Brera gets even more cool super-soldier actions, to make his and Alto’s alliance against Grace in the last episode all the more sweeter (you know, the feeling of completeness when Badass Warrior acknowledges the main character and fights back-to-back with him).

These movie re-tellings would also be colored by what happened during and after the TV series. Sheryl might’ve gotten along great with Ozma, so she gets extra interaction with Ozma in the movie. Brera might’ve grown closer to Sheryl and Alto, which would add extra interaction between them as well.

This would also explain why Battle Galaxy got all the added thorns and spikes: It’s more villainous. Battle Galaxy, if the Vajra were out, was the face of the enemy to everyone who couldn’t access Vajra Network at the time (see also Hades from Disney. In Disney’s version, Hades looks evil. In Mythical versions, Hades is just as handsome as his brothers).

It would actually be kind of fun to see an analysis of how Frontier views their heroes if TFS was their take on the events of the series. (Lonely Sheryl versus Sheryl Who Wasn’t Completely Alone Until Grace Abandoned Her. Innocent Ranka versus Ignorant Ranka. Blatant Alto versus Subtle Alto…)

Chan

I do believe that whenever a show tries to change itself for a new generation it also stands the chance to lose their older fans, and in some cases there are shows that don’t really have to change their formula, not only because what they came up with was timeless, but also because their series might not be as aged as they think. There is also a problem with following new trends in that it dates a work, if by looking at it you can tell exactly when the work was made it might not make it as enjoyable to future generations, especially after the trends change. There are certain characterizations that one can get away with depending on the type of series it is.

For instance while the inclusion of Klan Klan’s character who was both the loli-moe type character and also the mature female character was a twist on a old trope, and she also validated the previous installments of Macross in regards to the Meltrandi and can be seen as the end product of that Meltrandi that have been fully integrated into society. Yet Klan Klan’s appearance and tsundere attitude in her macronized form also follows today’s trends, but everything else about her is not dated.

The same can be said about Sheryl as well, Sheryl is pretty much a normal young woman. I have seen a little bit of Sheryl in many strong and proud females who have ever survived a brush with death (read: cancer). Or even her haughty personality and ego in people who have come from nothing and worked their asses off to become successful. Sheryl may in fact appeal to a lot of people especially women (she has a lot of female fans both on both sides of the Pacific) because of this, because some women recognize that strength or her struggles and they like her because she overcame it. Sheryl could be a person you know, and that appealed to the new generation who wanted someone they could identify with.

Alto is one where made a mistake. There is such a thing as being too reserved, thing is to make a character likable they have to be somewhat accessible to the average viewer. The time they spent showing him yelling battle cries in the cockpit is the time he should have spent showing us his inner thoughts. Actions speak louder than words true, but words are also very important, we wouldn’t have the skill to communicate with one another if it wasn’t needed after all. The inability to show his inner thoughts (which they novel rectifies) makes him seem wishy washy and frankly inaccessible. Its sad because if the novel is anything to go by Alto is more interesting than the anime and his issues far more complicated than shown by the anime. Alto has a bit of an identity crisis in terms of being a male this was revealed in the novel, and when one stops to think about it was shown in the anime in the form of Alto being upset about being mistaken for a woman but it was never elaborated on. To go into context for this when Alto at one point in time in the novel Alto refers to himself using different pronouns: Ore- masculine male way to refer to himself, then Boku- more polite way to refer to himself, Watashi- gender neutral way to refer to himself. He does this in his own mind when referring to himself. With this it makes more sense why Alto would want to get away from his home, not only because he wanted to be a pilot but also because he realized that he was going through a gender identity crisis. His relationship with Sheryl later on helps him get over this. The fact that Alto has also played a female for most of his pre- and post- pubescent life is also why he knows the female psyche better than most males. He is also pretty good at telling what a girl’s personality is from talking to them (he pretty much defines Ranka’s character to the audience with frightening accuracy in the novel even though they haven’t known each other for very long at that time). Alto could have been the male version of Klan Klan made for fanservice but much more than meets the eye, instead though Kawamori went the symbolism route which alienated Alto’s personality from the audience. The series would have been a lot more interesting if Alto got more focus, it should be known that even though Alto is the main male of the series he is not the main focus.

Bobby was just an amusing character. Elmo was also very interesting and like Klan represented the successful integration of the Zentradi race into human society. Ozma was a character that could also speak to the new generation in his status of young unprepared surrogate parent. He with his guilt as a reasoning spoiled Ranka, and shielded her from the harsh realities, while making her the center of his world. Him doing this destroyed his relationship with Cathy who he had planned to marry. The problem with him making Ranka his entire world was that Ranka became used to being the center of attention for everyone, and in a way expected it from others. Its sad that Ozma worked his ass off to provide for her only to have Ranka step all over his hard work. Its sad because Ozma marrying Cathy would had not only made him a happier man it would have also would mean that Ozma wouldn’t be able to spoil Ranka as much. Cathy was the typical character who was stuck in a relationship with a guy she didn’t really love it was really the typical story I’d seen in many movies (minus the my fiance assassinated my father part of course).

Grace was interesting and the more I learn about her the more interesting she is. Her worth as a villain is only proved in terms of her duping Leon, infecting Sheryl with the V-type virus, raising her into a pop sensation, then dropping her for someone better (its worse if you’ve listened to the audio drama or read the manga special about it http://community.livejournal.com/macross_f/218292.html). A lot of what happened to her she blames on the Mei family (and the Nome family simply because of association) because she tried to convince Ranshe Mei to learn how to control the Vajra, not only to save Ranshe’s life but also because of the possibilities it offered in terms of communication with loved ones and then Ranshe lets Ranka sing which then enrages the Vajra and gets their fleet destroyed on the same day mind you. She’s a bit like Alto though in that her story is never told in the anime, but in the novels and the CD dramas. It does make you think negatively about the Mei family because its members have made others suffer so much for their own bad decisions. The more you find out about why she has her vendetta the less sympathetic you are towards Ranka. She is the personification of hell hath no fury. This is a new type of villain for the Macross series, which would have been much better for the series had we known more about her, it doesn’t stop her from appealing to fans both new and old though.

Ranka is a character that would have been better off in another series, or playing another role. The problem with her in this series was that the society she lives in makes no room for being childish and immature especially during dire situations. It doesn’t help matters that she doesn’t behave like a normal teenager (or look like one) in her world, and her selfish personality which rears its ugly head at the worst of times where a normal person would be more worried about their loved ones rather than their own feelings. In other words she is tropehttp://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpoiledSweet- Spoiled Sweet minus the fact wealthy parents. She is a sweet girl as long as things are going her way. She’s not used to being told “no” has has a total disregard for the rules which maintain life in Frontier. What’s ironic about her is that her disgretions would not be so obvious if she wasn’t the main focus, and therefore the main character (she has the most screen time, and the appears in the most advertisements), she is the first person people see before they watch Frontier. She would be better off not in the one sided love triangle with her resembling a younger sister who has a crush on her older sister’s boyfriend. It also doesn’t help that the writers chose to use Alto to validate her character, made even worse by the fact that Alto only pays attention to her when she asks for advice or needs to be saved. She was actually made to appeal to the same people that make up most of Sheryl and Klan Klan’s fandom but alas not many people bought into it. She is the opposite of the other characters in that the more you find out about her the less interesting she seems. She was inaccessible to both new and old fans.

Swampstorm

While elements of culture may find their way into war, cultural expression in itself is a form of warfare. In SDFM, the Zentradi are a case in point; the series denies that they have a culture of their own (their military lifestyle in itself is a form of culture), and they are ultimately assimilated into Earth’s culture. As such, for all the “love conquers war” rhetoric that the series spouts, SDFM merely substitutes imperialism in the classic sense for cultural imperialism.

MF brings out a slightly more sophisticated take on this by having humanity appropriate elements of a foreign culture (i.e. “Aimo”) and give it new meaning in its various reincarnations, whether it be as a lullaby from mother to child, a pop song for a movie, or a form of martial music. In so doing, however, MF establishes that both humanity and the Vajra have their own distinct cultures, and lets each go their separate ways.

I just started reading Parfait Tic which is all about a really complex love triangle, one of the few I think is actually well done.

Such as the original Macross, I love that we got a solid conclusion and it showed a lot of character growth on the part of Hikaru. Because he was able to finally see who truly did care for him, rather than him continuing to chase the ghost of Minmei.

Who while she may have had genuine feelings for him, always seemed to put her needs first. Even right at the end, when she wanted to just play house with him. It was what she wanted, she never stopped to think that his views may have changed and that perhaps he wanted something different from back when they had first met.

And again this Triangle is sort of an homage to that original one. Because we can totally see elements of Minmei and Misa in Sheryl and Ranka.

Ranka while she may have feelings for Alto, certainly doesn’t seem to take the time to listen to Alto and his wants and needs. Its all about her own, she’s always running to him for advice. So in that aspect she’s sort of like Minmei.

Whereas Sheryl listens to what he has to say, I mean look at the birthday offer. She knew what was important to him and tried to give him that, which reminds me a lot of Misa.